Wise Turtle Publishing

I just took a look at the game, and it looks pretty cool. I generally "get" mechanics pretty quickly, so I don't really have much in the way of questions. I did want to run a character by people just to make sure I've got the basics down, see if I made any mistakes, that sort of thing. I decided that my first character (not for an actual game or anything, just to mess around) would be a conversion of a Pathfinder character I've used in the past.

Since I'm concentrating on learning the mechanics, I haven't included any of the fluffy stuff for the most part (though I'm happy to type out her story if anybody really wants me to). She's got plenty of story, that's just not what I'm focused on converting at the moment.

(Sorry it's not more readable, the text field here destroyed my formatting, so I had to rework things a bit.)

Saga, the Wandering Warmage
Defense (5), Health (30), Endurance (70), Threat (19)

Abilities
Agile (+2), Attack: War-magic (+3), Evasive (+2), Intimidating (+1), Iron-willed (+3), Knowledge: Magic (+1), Knowledge: War-magic (+3), Magic: Arcane (+2; Self Only), Quick (+1), Smart (+2), Vigorous (+3)

Weaknesses
Amnesia (-1), Awkward Size (-1, Short), Bizarre Appearance (-1, Half-drow), Emotionless (-1), Fear (-2, Drow), Focus (-1, Arcane Magic requires spellbook), Frail (-1), Fussy (-1), Hatred (-2, Drow), Mute (-1), Outcast (-2, Elves), Sensitivity (-1, Drow heritage), Shy (-2), Wanted (-2, Drow assassins), Weak (-2)

Attacks
Quarterstaff: (Roll 4, DX 0, End 0); Defensive; Weapon
Magic Missile: (Roll 8, DX 4, End 0); Aff. (Force); Accurate, Ranged, Redirectable; Feather Blow, Low Penetration
Flash Frost: (Roll 7, DX 6, End 15); Aff. (Ice); Area Effect, Effective x2, Ranged; Delayed
Fire Bolt: (Roll 7, DX 6, End 15); Aff. (Fire); Continued Effect, Effective x2, Ranged; Delayed
Thunder Storm: (Roll 7, DX 6, End 15); Aff. (Lightning); Multiple Targets x2, Ranged; Delayed

Ultimate Attack
Missile Massacre: (Roll 8, DX 9, End 30); Aff. (Force); Accurate, Armor Piercing x2, Barrier Buster, Effective x5, Redirectable, Strike Through, Area Effect x2, Overwhelming; Ammunition x3, Concentration, Open to Attack

Notes
I know she's got more attacks than usual, but I'm trying to convert a Pathfinder spellcaster, so I wanted to represent her ability to bring a lot of varied energy types and attack patterns to bear.

Also, I've seen the discussions over Gear vs. Focus vs. Whatever. I decided on Focus for her spellbook specifically because not just anybody can take it and use it: she's studied it for years to learn how to use this magic, and while she still needs the book to reference the mystical formulae, somebody just picking the book up would likely have no idea how to use it. Her combat spells, of course, are so rote that she doesn't need anything to cast them. She's a war mage after all, not a utility mage.

I'm not sure how Fear and Hatred of the same thing would interact at two -2 values. I think what I'd probably do (after talking to the hypothetical game's GM, of course), is declare which thing she wants to do at the moment (get away from them or fight them), and then roll Iron Will to have her avoid giving in to her emotions and taking the less desirable action instead.

So anyway, how's this look for my first try?

Edit
I went over the example characters and counted up their Abilities and Weaknesses, which reminded me that apparently the Base Zero rule lets you vary by 5 or so. If I wanted to unclutter the sheet a bit, I might drop a Weakness or two, I think, since I only took some of them trying to get my total to 0, stretching a bit to justify them. I'd probably drop Fussy and Hatred.

Just woke up, and I think your Magic: Arcane spells are missing.

Atmo wrote:Just woke up, and I think your Magic: Arcane spells are missing.

From what I read, you don't have to actually choose specific spells in advance, it just suggests noting down your character's most commonly cast spells as a shortcut, so you're not flipping through the book in the middle of a game. If I actually get to play her at some point, she'd mostly stick to using Armor +1 and Flight +1 depending on the situation, since the Endurance costs are a bit high at her current level of skill for her to mess around with much of anything else.

JRutterbush wrote:

Atmo wrote:Just woke up, and I think your Magic: Arcane spells are missing.

From what I read, you don't have to actually choose specific spells in advance, it just suggests noting down your character's most commonly cast spells as a shortcut, so you're not flipping through the book in the middle of a game. If I actually get to play her at some point, she'd mostly stick to using Armor +1 and Flight +1 depending on the situation, since the Endurance costs are a bit high at her current level of skill for her to mess around with much of anything else.

Ok, then.

Personally, I'd look into investing Magic: Arcane to show the versatility of a PFRPG's magic user.

But as written she's fine, from what I can tell.

Chris Brady wrote:Personally, I'd look into investing Magic: Arcane to show the versatility of a PFRPG's magic user.

But as written she's fine, from what I can tell.

The original character didn't learn very many non-offensive spells, she was a very focused warmage, focusing on evocations and elemental damage. Thanks for the input, though!

JRutterbush wrote:

Chris Brady wrote:Personally, I'd look into investing Magic: Arcane to show the versatility of a PFRPG's magic user.

But as written she's fine, from what I can tell.

The original character didn't learn very many non-offensive spells, she was a very focused warmage, focusing on evocations and elemental damage. Thanks for the input, though!

Unlike PFRPG, evocation/attack magic is very potent in OVA.

Also, yeah, that's personally what I think a Focus should be. It's something personal to the user, it can be taken away, but it's often not able to be used against the owner. Whereas gear often can.

Chris Brady wrote:Unlike PFRPG, evocation/attack magic is very potent in OVA.

Unlike in Pathfinder? Come on now, arcane magic is pretty darn potent in any d20 game as well.

Sprain Ogre wrote:

Chris Brady wrote:Unlike PFRPG, evocation/attack magic is very potent in OVA.

Unlike in Pathfinder? Come on now, arcane magic is pretty darn potent in any d20 game as well.

Actually, of all the schools, Evocation (as I stated above) is considered the weakest, because it does direct damage, as opposed to the more power Divination and Enchantment schools in which they often have no saves, or automatically end the encounter if the save is failed. (Save or 'Die', which spells like Charm Person/Monster, Flesh to Stone, Sleep and the like fall under.)

In OVA, it's a 'skill check', which means it's more effective and seeing that damage is actually a threat due to the system's lack of exponentially escalating hit points, this is one of the better systems for fantasy magic.

Chris Brady wrote:

Sprain Ogre wrote:

Chris Brady wrote:Unlike PFRPG, evocation/attack magic is very potent in OVA.

Unlike in Pathfinder? Come on now, arcane magic is pretty darn potent in any d20 game as well.

Actually, of all the schools, Evocation (as I stated above) is considered the weakest, because it does direct damage, as opposed to the more power Divination and Enchantment schools in which they often have no saves, or automatically end the encounter if the save is failed. (Save or 'Die', which spells like Charm Person/Monster, Flesh to Stone, Sleep and the like fall under.)

In OVA, it's a 'skill check', which means it's more effective and seeing that damage is actually a threat due to the system's lack of exponentially escalating hit points, this is one of the better systems for fantasy magic.

My bad, I missed that distinction. And it is an excellent one!

My parties have greatly preferred buff mages in the past (they get the fighters to do their damage for them that way), and summoning shenanigans. Evocations are fun at low levels, but as level increase they become less potent than clever use of battlefield control and buff spells. (A combo from 3.5 that was popular in the day: black tentacles to get people slowed down, and vortex of death to make them suffer...)

All that said, I withdraw my previous comment, you sir are correct.

Sprain Ogre wrote:My bad, I missed that distinction. And it is an excellent one!

My parties have greatly preferred buff mages in the past (they get the fighters to do their damage for them that way), and summoning shenanigans. Evocations are fun at low levels, but as level increase they become less potent than clever use of battlefield control and buff spells. (A combo from 3.5 that was popular in the day: black tentacles to get people slowed down, and vortex of death to make them suffer...)

All that said, I withdraw my previous comment, you sir are correct.

I'm currently running a game based kinda/sorta off of "Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon" (AKA Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka), Ruin Explorers among others, and the Fighter and Mage team are sick.

Looks good to me! You can definitely shave off a few weaknesses to get to +5, and I think eliminating Hatred would be a good choice. I see where you’re going by having both, but it’s a little fiddly and they contradict each other enough that it might be better to simplify.

I wouldn’t worry about the number of attacks. Minus your “ultimate” move, Miho has just as many. As long as you can keep track and don’t make, say, 10 and diversify them so much as to game the system against any potential foe, it’s more color than anything.

For your ultimate attack, you might want to consider Ammunition, Break, or Finisher to give it more of that shounen "Final Attack" vibe. Maybe that’s not what you’re going for, but it is the anime RPG we’re talking about, right?

Your quarterstaff looks to be a bit off.

I do see you have Weak -2, but the book mentions if your damage multiplier is reduced below 1(and it starts at 1 to begin with), reduce it to 1/2 instead (doing 1 damage for every 2 you beat the defense roll)

The sample character Braun demonstrates this in action.

Ah, I did overlook that! Yes, you should be using 1/2 DX for the Quarterstaff.

Chris Brady wrote: I'm currently running a game based kinda/sorta off of "Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon" (AKA Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka), Ruin Explorers among others, and the Fighter and Mage team are sick.

I have just started to watch "Pick up Girls in a Dungeon" and I'm really digging the setting! At first I was wondering if I could run something like it with Fantasy Age, but then there was the Grimoire episode, and I figured that wouldn't work well, and then I remembered, "Oh, yeah, OVA. That's probably be perfect for it..."

I'm thinking that might be a game I run sometime soon myself...